Beauty on the Wind
by RiseaZombie
Summary: The Aang Gang is older, not yet defeated the firelord, and Aang has lost hope, until they took a trip through time where ancient tales of Avatar Aang and his unmet wife's beautiful love legend.
1. Chapter 1

So, hey this is my first fanfic, try to be nice… anyway for anyone who reads it, if it gets read… this is a huge derailment from the cannon storyline. Aang and Kitara never get together, in fact Kitara/Zuko are a thing in this story, though it may be awhile before I get into any of their details, after all this is not their story… As for Toph, whom I've never cared for; she will be present, but really only where convenient. I will be pulling inspiration from multiple sources, even things nothing to do with Avatar. I feel I should also mention that then entire AG (Aang Gang) will be older than they are in the series, due to being a few years after the day of black sun, and never having to worry about "Sozin's Comet". Aang himself will be 17. So without further ado, let's get started-RiseaZombie

Five years.

Five years, he had been waiting honing his abilities. Staying sharp, waiting for the right time to strike. After the failure of black sun, Aang had honestly lost his resolve. Not that he could tell anyone that. Their faces, their hopeful faces. They all depended on him to lead, to have courage and wisdom in such dark times. But it was they that allowed Aang to keep himself together.

Five years ago, Aang had failed to defeat the fire lord. They retreated to the western air temple to rest. All was wrong, and nothing was right; in this strangled version of an air temple where up was down and down was up, his lonely heart was reflected in every move he made. That was the beginning of this new community that he looked after. All he wanted was rest, of both body and spirit. The truth is that his friends knew the truth, Sokka, Kitara, and Toph all knew. They knew that he had been discouraged, and like many others before him, all the young avatar needed was something to fight for.

And so it was that Sokka decided that they needed a base, and Kitara and Toph agreed that a home was necessary. Kitara sent word to their allies within the Earth kingdom and their friends who had been at the northern air temple and now they had a family. Even Zuko had joined them, which although he respected Zuko as his friend turned out to be an interesting turn of events where his love life was concerned.

"Aang, did you hear me?"

He pulled out his thoughts as his thoughts as been gazing longingly out at the scene over the balcony.

"Aang. What's with the brood? Geez what is with you these days, it's like you're not even here! I don't need eyes to see that you weren't exactly payin much attention. "

His friend had always been observant of his discontent. Although, He really wasn't sure she would have noticed had Lord Iroh not have mentioned the little problem to her. Seemingly she would have noticed eventually. Not that Lord Iroh ever meant any harm, no he was the wisest person they had ever encountered.

Aang let out a sigh. "I'm alright. Lessons are over for the day. What's everyone else going to do for the evening?"

"Well, we are supposed to go over to Kitara and Zuko's for dinner remember? It is only your birthday!" She grabbed his arm and started walking back into the temple through the doors, and started shoving him down the stairs where his room was.

"oh, yea," "-Yeah, so cheer up! Go get spiffy and get ready to hang out with only the best people you know!"

"Yea, I could use some fun." "You betcha! See you at the top twinkle toes." She left for the next floor up as Aang headed down.

Within his own room, he took a moment to look around at the few possessions he had. His staff in the corner of the room, an old red bandana he had picked up somewhere in the fire nation, the mirror on his wall and the razor on the stand near it. He looked in the mirror, and took note of his full head of brown hair, the razor having gone unused for nearly 3 weeks. He didn't really shave anymore, except his face of course. Despite being an air bender, he had let go of many doctrines, never the ones that really mattered of course, but he just felt so lost.

Looking back on his failure's all he could think of is if only things were different. Aang had his friends, and his commrades, and he was teaching many different wisdoms, those who wished to learn that is. And yet, none truly understood him. How could they? They didn't know what it was like to lose an entire people. They didn't know what it was like to be the last of their kind. They had never tasted the air quite the way he had, and nor could he ever hope to share it with them… despite his teachings, nothing was going to fill that void.

After thinking on the past he realized the time had gone by fast, and it was already to meet his friends for his birthday get together. He left his room with the best smile he could muster and headed up the six flight of steps to get to the upper most chambers.

"Happy birthday dear Aang, happy birthday to you~~" Aang blew out the candles but could not find a single wish worth making. There were so many things wrong with the world that if any wish were to come true, how could he make it a selfish one? Not feeling up for cake, Aang made his way over to the balcony and sat on the ledge with his legs sticking through the bars.

Man I need to find a way out of this funk… everyone can tell that I'm not up to my best. If I were to make a wish, what would I even want? Kitara, Sokka, Zuko, Toph, they've all given everything for me. How could I even ask for anything more?

"Iroh!" he heard a commotion behind him still inside. Iroh had not been present before, and anytime he showed up, it was always with a piece of wisdom, even when he was not ready to hear it. Aang let his head rest on the ledge of the railing to enjoy the last few moments of quite, and simply hoped that despite how he normally enjoyed it, that Iroh had not brought up any instruments for another music night.

"Ah, young Aang, my how jubilant you look! Surely your birth is an occasion to celebrate!" The old general stood beside Aang where he currently sat.

"I'm celebrating. The dinner was great and it was nice to spend some time with the group again." Aang responded.

"OH! That is most certainly good to hear. So tell me why do my ears and eyes disagree with one another?" Iroh noticed Aang's eyes cast down. "There is no shame in not feeling perfectly happy. Your loneliness is definitely worthy of acknowledgment."

Aang's head shot up in confusion. "Why do you think I'm lonely? I have my friends! I have always had them. Why would I be lonely?"

"You may have your friends, and even though as the avatar nationality tends to not mean much to you, but you cannot deny that something is missing in your life. Especially in the field of love."

"Love…yea," Aang again cast his eyes down. "I don't seem to have much luck with that. I'll never be as charming as Zuko, or as put together as Sokka. And I have to much responsibility to deal with. Maybe in my next life, I'll have better luck."

"Maybe, or maybe what you need is to find someone like you" The general helped his young friend up.

Aang stood and questioned "Like me how? How could anyone be like me except me… another me. Avatar? It's my responsibility to take care of these people, mine to restore balance to the world, which so far I've failed. It's me who the world is looking to , who had to learn bending and other wisdoms despite others being against me. How will I ever find someone like me?"

"Perhaps no one else has ever been the avatar, but there are others who have had the weight of the world on their shoulders. Perhaps what you need is to find someone who can rekindle the fire within. Or to be more accurate someone who can read the beauty on the wind much like yourself." Iroh turned and walked away, and Aang leaned over the balcony…

Beauty on the wind… maybe I could be so lucky.


	2. Chapter 2

"At the center of the temple is a sacred chamber, that has been a center for only the most enlightened monks to go to for meditation. Often monks will not be heard from for years, the doors having being sealed from the other side -" BAAAM

A crash interrupted the avatar from his reading to his class. As Aang looked around he took note of the loud sound, one of his pupils had fallen from his sitting position now on the floor out cold. In fact all of his students looked to bored to pay attention today. With a sigh, he rolled up the scripture, and put it away. "why don't we call it a day?" The class slowly got up from their seats, obviously sore from the past four hours having sat on their pillows on the floor. In walked Kitara right as the class began to exit.

"Hey Aang, I heard you were giving lectures on the layout of the shrines chambers."

"Yeah, it's a pretty interesting read. We were just getting to the inner chamber on the fourth level."

"oh, and they weren't interested?" his friend offered him a frown.

"well no, but that's just because they don't know the interesting bit about it." Kitara took his arm and they started walking around the library that they were currently in. He looked at her and got excited for a brief moment, "It's said that the monks would be sealed in the room for so long because they would receive visions of the future."

"What? How is such a thing even possible?" The prince's voice interjected, standing next to Toph, but Sokka now searching the shelves for anything of interest.

"Well I'm not sure exactly, I'm still studying it myself."

"It is said that time is very similar to the spirit realms themselves, you see it is all existing in one time. It is not like a river that travels from place to place, but rather in a pond that is all together as one single ecosystem." Iroh had just joined them.

"Huh, that reminds me of the swamp benders."

"Uh, Kitara, how can anything the wise, highly decorated general says remind you of those hill bellies? I'm not so sure they were all there, they were kinda loopy you know."

"Don't you remember? 'Time is an illusion and so is death'" Kitara insisted.

"Well in that case, perhaps life is as well." the old man responded, and Sokka gave a strange eye brow quirk. "Well you see, the ancient scriptures say that the soul within is who one is. If time is indeed an illusion, then no matter how much time passes, you will always be who you are, and as death is an illusion, the flesh is irrelevant."

"UGH! No more philosophy Uncle. Your words are wasted on this guy"

"Well THIS guy doesn't believe in destiny stuff! THIS guy happens to believe in action and focusing on what we can do now! Or how to plan for the future."

"Isn't the summer solstice coming soon? Shouldn't the walls between the worlds be at its thinnest then? Maybe we can get visions of the future to help us win the war. Having a little bit of extra information may be useful."

"But Toph, we don't know if the summer solstice will help with it or if the solstice even matters." came Kitara's voice from across the room where she had made herself at home amongst more scrolls, her brother Sokka at the table beside her, always searching for something for a battle, even though by now he should know better.

"Hmm, it can't hurt to try, and even if we don't find anything to do with the war, it would still be an interesting spiritual experience, which I think I need."

And with that, Aang clung to his small bit of resolve.

The weeks flew by and the Aang Gang was ready for their spiritual experience. Who knows if they would see the future or not. It was going to be worth a try, surely so many accounts of different monks having experienced the same thing couldn't just be a lie.

"Is everyone ready? This may be dangerous. If it is somehow connected to the spirit world, we have no idea how this could go." Aang cautioned.

"Or it could be a big nothing."

"Or could be fun and exciting." Toph said with a smile

"Maybe we actually WILL find something to do with the war. We haven't made much progress in a few years. It would be nice to get back on track." Even the prince looked excited.

"Well," Kitara who stood holding Zuko's hand began "We are all aware of the endless possibilities. Lets just make the best of whatever we get from this night."

Aang furrowed his brows, and made a stance. He felt the protons hovering just at the edge of his skin. The particles of the air shifted and bent to his will, and he did something no one expected. He breathed in and released the power from within; it was in his voice. A long deep tune that came forth from his lungs and resonated with the surrounding air. The oscillation swirled through the pipes surrounding the door that stood in front of them with ease, something he could not have accomplished a mere five years ago. The door opened at the will of an air bender.

The gang stood there looking in awe, not at the door opening, but at the young avatar.

"HAHA! What a shame that you have been so quite on music nights! You have quite a voice." A voice from behind them chimed in, as he pushed a tea cart, with a steaming pot of water and a mesh satchel of a white tea blend.

"uh, yea, you really do. Huh, that's a strangely unexpected bit of information" Zuko responded a little weirded out for some reason.

"Yea, well I'm disappointed you never told me. I AM your best friend you know. *I* should know at least. I'm feeling really left in the dark. We could have been having so much fun winning over the ladies."

Aang smiled at Sokka's compliment. "Well the secret is from a good deep breath. All the monks used to learn a bit of singing. We used to chant and sing all the time." Aang's smile dropped for a moment. He loved the family had now, but he missed being amongst his own people who understood him, and took joy in understanding the feeling of the wind. But he quickly recovered, squared his shoulders and with determination for the task at hand, he walked into the large chamber.

Within the Chamber were beautiful orange and yellow tapestries, with the symbol of air on them. A huge chandelier hung from high ceilings in the center of the room, with large candles that had not been touched in centuries. At the bottom of the chandelier was a small crystal dangling with the symbol of the air upon it. Right under the chandelier was a podium with incense. There were matching pillows scattered throughout the room surrounding the podium, atop a yellow velvet carpet. Iroh rolled the cart in, and began poring the tea.

"So, what happens from here?"

"Well according to Monk Suita's account, when the sun sets the light will shine from the western window, and will hit the chandelier. When it does we should all be comfortably on these pillows." Aang explained, just as Kitara hovered over him.

"hmm, it also says we should light the candles and incense.

"Who is Monk Suita?" Sokka asked as he sat about to light the candles, and Aang left Kitara with the scroll while he lit the incense.

"I had never heard of her before I started studying this temple"

"Oh, so you don't know who she is." Sokka responded.

"No, there have been many monks in the history of the world, I couldn't know every one of them."

"Eh, can't argue that."

The group sat on the pillows, inhaling the fumes of the incense, as Iroh handed each of them a cup of tea, and then proceeded to exit the room quietly.

Silence followed. A lot of silence, for several minutes. And then the sun started to go down.

"So I see that nothing is happening. Just as I suspected, the monks were a bunch of quacks."

"Sokka, don't be rude" She only reprimanded her brother because of the disappointment clear on her friends face.

But just as quickly as Aang's face had flashed down, it was brought right back up in surprise and awe. The sunlight was hitting the crystal that dangled from the chandelier, and from it reflected the symbol of air, of freedom and peace. It spewed about the walls with grace and truly it was a sacred sight. It entranced the entire group, each of them looking about and beginning to sway back and forth.

Kitara dropped the cup from her hand as she fainted from her sitting position, only to be followed by Sokka and Zuko. Aang himself still captivated began to see colors that he had never experienced anywhere else but in the spirit realm. A sudden wave of panic came over him, as he suspected that it was indeed the workings of the spirit realm upon them. He lifted himself of the ground hoping that it was not to late for his friends, to remove them from the room. He prayed as he reached for Kitara that her spirit hadn't left her body. Just as he began to inch barley close enough, Aang heard it. A voice like one he had never heard in this time. Hadn't heard since the time of the monks. It was a beautiful pitch he could taste on the wind. It sang a few notes with skill, and then as it quieted it's singing she called for him. She was calling out to him.

"Aang. Aang. I love you Aang."

He fell to his knees, tears in his eyes, as the air symbols still hovered around him. And from his knees, he to fell into a deep sleep.

"Uh, what just happened? Guys? Guys? Are you all sleeping?" Toph was very confused, though she had heard the woman's voice too.


End file.
